Rams ordered to pay Reggie Bush $12.5 million for injury suffered in 2015 game
Reggie Bush never played a down for the Rams during his 11-year NFL career, but the team now owes him $12.5 million after a jury found the franchise liable for a knee injury suffered in a game three years ago.
Bush, then a member of the San Francisco 49ers, suffered a torn lateral meniscus when he slipped on the concrete surface that encircled the field behind the respective teams’ benches at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.
The Rams were based in St. Louis from 1995-2015 before returning to Los Angeles for the 2016 season.
Bush was returning a punt for the 49ers in a game on Nov. 1, 2015. He was pushed out of bounds, and his momentum carried him to what his lawsuit described as “concrete ring of death” approximately 35 feet behind the 49ers bench.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a jury in St. Louis found the Rams were 100-percent liable for the danger created by the concrete surface and ordered the team to pay Reggie Bush $4.95 million in compensatory damages and $7.5 million in punitive damages.
In his suit, Bush said the injury not only ended his season but “it ultimately ended my career. I wasn’t ready to end. I wanted to keep playing. I wanted to go out on my own terms. I never envisioned, as a little boy, my career ending, slipping and falling on concrete during a football game.”
He also claimed his suit was about improving player safety around the league.
“Safety always has to be a priority during games, during practices,” Bush said. “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve seen worse. Football’s a rough sport. It’s already as brutal as it can possibly be. We don’t need any concrete or anything else out there that can make it even worse for guys. They’ve got enough to worry about with other guys trying to take their heads off.”
An attorney for the Rams argued the team should not be held responsible for Bush’s injury because the team could not have foreseen a dangerous condition when no injuries had been related to the concrete surface in the previous 20 seasons the Rams played in the facility.
But one week prior to Bush’s injury, Cleveland Browns quarterback Josh McCown injured his shoulder when he was forced out of bounds, slid across the concrete strip and slammed into the wall at the base of the first row of seats.
The Rams also argued that Bush injury may have been caused by pre-existing conditions and may have happened as he first tried to slow his momentum, eliciting testimony that “he may have heard and felt a pop in his knee before reaching the concrete strip off the sidelines,” according to the Post-Dispatch.
Bush was playing for San Francisco on a one-year deal that paid him $2.5 million.
But in closing arguments, his lawyer, Tim Cronin, asked jurors for a judgment against the Rams ranging from $10 million to $15 million, claiming the running back was in line for a three-year deal in that salary range at the time of his injury.
“Reggie lost his ability to do what he loved, and to bargain for a contract that he worked his entire life for,” Cronin said. “These players get chewed up. They only have so many chances.”
Bush eventually signed a one-year deal with Buffalo in 2016 for $1.5 million, but he made very little impact with the team, totaling 12 carries for minus-3 yards and catching seven passes for 90 yards and one touchdown. That turned out to be his final season in the NFL.
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